


The Next Life

by LilDale



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26126563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilDale/pseuds/LilDale
Summary: Vegeta dies for the third and final time in the battle against Kid Buu but instead of losing his body and suffering in eternal hell he's given the chance to redeem himself by the highest power. He wakes up in the past on Frieza's ship and is given one objective. Purge the planet Earth.
Relationships: Bulma Briefs/Vegeta
Comments: 39
Kudos: 85





	1. The Third Life

“Vegeta!” Goku yelled as he pointed at the missing ring above Vegeta’s head. “Your halo’s gone, I guess the dragon counted you as one of the good guys!” Goku exclaimed with pure joy.

The hairs on Vegeta’s back stood as the fabric of his gloves scraped against his twitching fingers, when he had been gifted his body to help fight Majin Buu he noticed that he only felt sensation when it was extreme; and unfortunately for him the only extreme sensation he had felt since he got his body back was horrible earth shattering pain. A cold shiver ran through Vegeta as his body readjusted to being alive, the feeling of his outfit clinging to the sweat on his back, the goosebumps on his arms, and the familiar bone aching exhaustion after a fight to the death. “I-I...Tch.” He said in complete loss, completely unable to describe the experience of feeling the little things once again or humor Kakarot's ridiculous label giving.

It was hard to ignore the cold breeze that spanned the planet he was on now that he noticed it. “Kakarot don’t forget what I told you. Now that the people of earth have been revived let them fuel the spirit bomb and defend their own mudball for once.”

Goku’s face lifted, “You’re always so full of good ideas Vegeta, but..”

“I know, I know, I’ll buy you the time you need. Just charge the damn ball, and speak to the earthlings and if you can’t convince them use that fool over there to get through to them.” He said as he eyed Hercule who suddenly had a horrible stomach ache. Vegeta smirked at him, “I guess it’s a good thing you’re an absolute charlatan now is it?”

Goku laughed, “You really thought of everything, but..” Vegeta flared his aura and nearly sped off to deal with Buu.

“Wait! Vegeta your body isn’t going to be as durable now that you’re alive, you need to be more careful.”

Vegeta scoffed as he flew off to buy the time needed to charge the ball.

“Let’s go you big pink wad of chewing gum.” Vegeta spat as he took his stance, his brow furrowed as Buu ignored him and beat his chest and blew steam. He withdrew his pride for the moment and waited till Buu made the first move though, the point of even standing before him was to buy time so he was going to do that.

The steam from Buu’s ears reached an ear bleedingly loud pitch and he vanished before appearing in front of Vegeta in an instant.

The beating that ensued brought Vegeta back to his childhood and gave him a strange nostalgic feeling. Back to Frieza, back to the torture room; the blows to his head sent audible shockwaves through Vegeta’s head and made his ears bleed. Buu’s fists were so unbelievably heavy. All Vegeta could do was fight on instinct because he couldn’t hope to react to Buu’s blinding speed in base and even then he was being pounded by nearly everything. But all he had to do was stay awake, all he had to do was stay awake. Just stay.. awake. He lazily threw a punch at Buu’s jaw and Buu fell backwards to dodge the punch and laughed as he made a snow angel motion. Vegeta growled and stomped on the ground where Buu’s stomach was and grinded his teeth together when Buu formed a hole where his stomach was. Buu stood up and headbutted Vegeta and sent him flying backwards.

Vegeta skipped to SSJ 2 and landed three hard knocks on Buu and kicked him away with the heel of his foot. He lowered himself to the ground to conserve energy and prepared for Buu’s next attack, he ducked on instinct and dodged a surprise kick from Buu. He slipped under him and threw him onto the ground. He went to slam his fist into Buu’s stomach but his fist hit the dirt as Buu retracted his head into his body. He smiled an evil grin at Vegeta from his belly. Then he teleports in front of Vegeta and punches him across the face, he grabs Vegeta’s hair as he staggers and slams him into the ground mercilessly.

Vegeta’s phased in and out of consciousness as his head was slammed in and out of the dirt but Buu’s laughs haunted him whether he was awake or not. He screamed as he flared his aura and knocked Buu away, but it was a hollow victory as Buu laughed as he was knocked away by Vegeta’s energy. The monster smirked as he began to walk towards Vegeta. He bit his glove as he stared Buu down from the crater made mostly from his head and ignored the burning feeling he had to fall in his legs. “Y-you know what I hate about you.” Vegeta said, stopping Buu in his tracks. “You’re weak. Weaker t-than you were before, and stupider…” He smirked when his words managed to strike some sort of chord in Buu. He didn’t know if he understood what he was saying or if he just knew he was being insulted, but either way it didn’t matter. “Weaker, dumber, hell y-you’re even shorter. You’re nothing compared to how you were, and yet you think you have the right to stand before me. T-the prince of all Saiyans.” Vegeta pulled his arms down as he flared his aura, the electricity crackled around him as he pushed his power as far as his battered body would allow him to. He took a second to enjoy the rush that came from pushing his power as far as it could go. Another feeling lost to his dead body now regained, but it was nothing compared to the sudden burst of pride that he felt and then he continued, “You’re nothing, so come and get some.” He finished as he pointed at himself. “See how you stack up against the prince of all Saiyans you disgusting freak of nature.”

Buu beat his chest and blew steam as if he was responding to Vegeta’s speech and then he vanished in front of Vegeta and slammed him in the stomach, he smiled as Vegeta coughed blood on his face then he kicked him in the face and knocked him through a mountain. Buu flew up and watched as Vegeta rocketed towards the ground from the impact not even bothering to break his fall, then he teleported down and slammed his foot through the ground and kicked Vegeta in the back of the head through the dirt miles away.

Vegeta rapidly got to his feet after the surprising blow and sighed exhaustedly, he slowly took his stance and waited for Buu to make his move again. “Kakarot how’s it coming?” He yelled as he waited.

“Shouldn’t be too much longer Vegeta, after Hercule started talking the energy started piling in. Just hang on a little longer; another minute at most!”

Vegeta sighed at those words. It was questionable at best that Kakarot actually knew what a minute was and even then another minute with Buu, he already knew what that was like. As he strengthened his stance he mentally prepared himself for what was probably going to be the hardest minute of his third life. He dodged another sudden foot that came from the ground, then another, but the third foot caught him off guard on the jaw. Vegeta staggered back and cursed Buu’s ridiculous set of powers, he flew up to see if he could get a look at Buu. He didn’t see Buu but he felt his hand on the back of his head and then the rush of air followed by the dirt afterwards.

He flared his aura again and staggered to his feet. He punched with his right hand then his left but Buu dodged both punches with a smile, Vegeta barely even had the strength to growl. He chopped at the air and tried to sweep Buu to catch him off guard but the monster dodged every attack Vegeta uselessly threw. He growled and jumped backwards to get some space between him and Buu and started spamming ki blasts, in the futile hope that it would damage Buu enough to keep him pinned there.

Buu phased in front of him and punched Vegeta and smiled when he felt his nose crack underneath his fist. He phased behind Vegeta and kicked him in the back hard enough to bend him over his foot, Vegeta’s hair flickered from yellow to black as he struggled to remain conscious. Buu blitzed Vegeta landing blow after blow on his body and head.

“Vegeta!” Goku yelled, “It’s ready, you need to get out of the way.” Goku screamed as he held the spirit bomb above him with his energy. “Hurry!” Goku yelled again. The ball grew three sizes as energy continued to pile into it in droves, all of the universe's creatures sharing their energy with Goku in a desperate attempt to rid the universal threat that they faced. The pure desperation in Goku’s face was reflected in the pure blue color the ball exuded.

Vegeta futilely attempted to flare his aura to push Buu away but he found he didn’t even have the strength to do that anymore, he slipped underneath a punch and knocked Buu onto the ground with his elbow and held him there with his knee against the back of his neck “Just launch the damn ball you imbecile!” Vegeta yelled as he struggled to hold Buu on the ground. “This is not up for fucking debate Kakarot, launch the ball or everybody dies.” Buu flared his aura and slammed Vegeta in his already broken nose and laughed when it spewed even more blood. He was about to throw another insanely heavy fisted attack when he noticed the ball that Goku held above his head in the reflection of a nearby lake, at first traces of fear could be seen and felt in the creature but then he realized that the ball had not yet been thrown and his incredibly slow mind put two and two together.

He laughed harder than he ever laughed before as he stomped on the back of a powered down Vegeta.

Goku glanced around the environment hoping for something, anything to bail them out of this situation. Hercule was blubbering behind a mountain way too far away to be of any help. Majin Buu was out cold. There was nothing that could be done, Goku did another look around and then another look around. He scanned the environment a dozen times, ran many possibilities but he was stuck. There really was no other option, he had to use the spirit bomb and Vegeta probably wasn’t going to come back a third time. He couldn’t win this fight without sacrificing Vegeta. He couldn’t win this fight with Vegeta and yet he couldn’t have won this fight without him. With a heavy heart he let the ball go, “Goodbye Vegeta.” Goku said as his tears evaporated into the massive sphere of energy beneath him.

Though there were more spots than clear vision in his eyes Vegeta knew why his world was suddenly blue. He rolled over and glanced at Buu who was just barely holding the ball above him. He saw Buu’s legs begin to give out, he saw him drop to his knees, then he saw a momentary moment of pure existential fear. Guess everybody feared death no matter how brainless the creature, it was such a strange feeling to know that your enemy was holding up the attack that was going to end your existence and therefore providing you with precious seconds of life, and even stranger to watch him fail and know you were going to die with him again. Going to die again, again, again. But that’s just the way it is.

The ball engulfed Buu and Vegeta and the hairs on his back stood up when he heard the sound of Buu’s existence being ended in an instant. He closed his eyes and prepared himself for what was coming to him.

When his eyes opened instead of on his knees broken and battered he was on his feet feeling perfect in a rather dark room, which Vegeta took to mean he was likely dead; and was officially the laughing stock of the universe. The only man to have ever died three times, but then again he was the only man to cheat death three times. He was above death, but wait was he dead? He did have all of his clothes on, so that was very undeath like. He wasn’t in front of King Yemma’s desk, and he also wasn’t in line waiting to get there. He had a body so he hadn’t been judged yet.

* * *

“Where am I?” His voice echoed for what seemed like miles and it disturbed him. Right before he was going to slam himself in the stomach to check if he was actually dead a voice came from seemingly all directions.

“You’ve been given a special chance Vegeta.”

Vegeta crossed his arms unimpressed with the spooky voice, “What kind of chance?”

“You were killed by the spirit bomb, but instead of being destroyed at a molecular level like Buu your body remained completely intact. Just without a soul.”

“So what…?”

“It means you’re dead, for a third time. The last two times you died you were judged and sent to hell without your body. However not only did the universe deem you a good guy once when you were wished back to life, but twice. When your body was not destroyed by the spirit bomb. The attack had more than enough energy to erase your beaten body many times over but it cannot fully destroy anything that isn’t pure evil, such is the nature of the attack. You’re a good guy. The universe forgives you, but you’re also not a good guy. So we all did some thinking, and we’ve decided what we’re going to do with you.”

“Who’s we? Are you going to send me back to the mortal plane?”

“Don’t worry about it, and yes; but not to the one you’re native to. A person can’t be wished back twice by the same balls because it’s a sin against nature, to be wished back three times is blasphemy and would set a bad precedent for the rest of the universe. Yet you do deserve another chance for your part in ridding the world of Majin Buu. So we’re going to send you to a different dimension rather than wish you back. Think of it as an alternate dimension if you need to, and you’ll get to make your own decisions from there. You’ve proved that you’re a good guy to the universe, we’re giving you a chance to prove it to us. Things will be pretty similar, however you may notice some small changes here or there.”

Vegeta vehemently nodded his head, “Not only do I not not deserve that, I don’t want it. I’m perfectly content with the life I’ve lived. I don’t need to relive it or change anything. I’d rather lose my body and rot in hell then lose everything else.”

“The lives you’ve lived Vegeta, and unfortunately it’s not your choice to make.” Then a flash of light.

* * *

Vegeta’s head slammed against the hard metal of the bed frame above him as he jolted awake as if from a nightmare. He held his head and swore as he looked at his surroundings, “Frieza’s ship?” His own personal quarters? “Oh fuck.” The decorations, the furniture, the walls, kind of the floor. He didn’t recognize the floor but everything else was uncanny.

He recognized his surroundings completely. He really was in the past, but considering the way his days blended together in the past he had no clue what year it was. Which angered him to an extreme degree. The only thing that served to calm him were thoughts of how to get the fuck out of this horrible timeline.

Right before he got lost in his thoughts and blew a hole in the ship and took everyone on it out for the fuck of it he heard a knock on the door, “What!” He yelled as he was nearly pulling his hair out.

“Sorry my prince, Frieza has requested our presence.” Nappa said as he poked his head through the door. “If it wasn’t obvious enough, he told us we need to get there as soon as possible.”

“Right, right. Okay, and what of Raditz?” Vegeta said, curious about whether or not his other former subject was alive.

“...I’ve already told him.” Nappa said, surprised that Vegeta cared enough about Raditz that he wanted to keep him informed and therefore likely alive.

“Good, you’re dismissed. I’ll be there when I’m ready.” He sighed. Life is annoying but if he was going to get back to his old life he needed to get off this piece of shit first of all and get to Earth. Which meant he had to play the part.

Nappa bowed and stood by the door, Vegeta was slightly annoyed with his lack of respect for privacy till he remembered Nappa’s position as his bodyguard. He wrinkled his brow, apparently this Nappa took his position as bodyguard a lot more seriously.

“Nappa remind me, what were my previous power level readings?”

Nappa raised an eyebrow before he answered, “You were in the 15000’s prince.” How strange of Vegeta to not remember his power level to the decimal. “Are you feeling alright Vegeta, I know you took a hard beating from Zarbon recently and you’re acting strange.”

Vegeta rolled his eyes at his pathetically low number, “Well isn’t that just fucking fantastic.” Just another reason to take everyone out. Not only did he lose everything and everyone important to him, he was a weakling now.

“Yeah Vegeta it is.” Nappa said awkwardly, “you’re really close to Dodoria’s level. I can’t wait for when you’re finally ready to wipe that disgusting pink blob off the face of the universe.”

“I could do it right now, but Dodoria is mud under my shoe.” Vegeta said, he was confident that he could take Dodoria despite the power difference. His power level may be abysmally tiny compared to his previous life but he had all of that time to refine his technique at least enough to wipe Dodoria’s sloppy ass off the face of the universe. “Let’s go see what that disgusting lizard wants.”

Nappa noted Vegeta’s willingness to disregard caution with the Frieza disrespect on his own ship, which was a terrible place to do that. He seemed to be in a very brazen mood today.

Vegeta looked around the ship with a strange sense of nostalgia as he walked to Frieza. As Nappa yelled at Raditz to hurry over to them, Vegeta looked at all of the members of the Frieza force as if they were aliens. Which he supposed they were, but he didn’t recognize most of them. Which was probably normal, since he didn’t exactly take the time to get to know anyone below him; and he definitely didn’t plan to now. It seemed that there was a larger variety of aliens than he remembered though.

A sick smile painted Frieza’s face as the Saiyans he so loved to torment entered his line of sight. “Well if it isn’t my favorite trio of saiyans, to what do I owe this surprise visit to?” His eyebrow raised as he noticed Vegeta waiting till the last second to bow before his almightyness.

Vegeta sighed as he bowed, “You sent for our presence my…” His response was unfortunately cut in half because Frieza shoved his face onto the floor of the ship.

“Why do you feel the need to tell me things I already know little monkey.” Frieza punctuated his words by mashing Vegeta’s face into the ship harder with every word. “It’s quite bothersome.” Vegeta lifted his face as soon as he felt the hand leave and silently growled at Frieza already being in his seat.

“Oh Zarbon, your suggestion to reinforce the floor of the ship was such a winner.” Frieza said through his joyous laughter.

“My pleasure my lord, I figured you’d eventually grow weary of getting Saiyan blood all over the walls.”

Vegeta groaned as he rubbed his jaw, that explained why he didn’t recognize the floors; and it was officially official. He hated this fucking timeline.

Frieza laughed heartily, “And that Zarbon is why you’re there, and Ginyu is... somewhere rather than here.” He clapped, “But, back to business. My men have discovered a sector of the universe that doesn’t know of my glory. Which are becoming very hard to find these days.” Frieza said as he giggled to himself. “You are to go and make your presence known and then forgotten on the most populated planet in that sector.”

“How are they going to make their presence forgotten Lord Frieza.” Came Dodoria’s rough voice annoying even Frieza himself.

“Because ideally there’ll be nobody left to remember Dodoria.” Frieza sighed. “You will purge the planet...The planet… The… Zarbon what was the planet called, I’d use the numbers but I want to make sure, I fear that might be too complicated for the apes.”

Vegeta noted Frieza’s words, apparently this Frieza was closer to universal control then his universes was. Also just great.

Raditz's tail twitched violently at their teasing. They had been purging planets since they were tweens, and they had the fucking numbers system memorized far before that, it isn’t complicating. An actual literal monkey could figure it out.

“Earth.” Zarbon simply stated.

“That definitely didn’t happen in my universe.” Vegeta thought as he kept his eyes on the ground. He went to Earth to avenge Raditz’s death, and to use the dragonballs.

“Yes, Earth. I’ll even have my technicians mark it on your pods just in case. You will purge the planet Earth, do not destroy the planet. Understand?”

“Yes Lord Frieza.” All three saiyans said in unity as their tails also coincidentally twitched in unison.

“Good, always have to double check with you simians. It’ll take you 2 gs(galactic standard)years to get to and from the planet. Then you’ll have a gs week and a half to purge the planet. You’re dismissed.”

The three saiyans gave one more bow before leaving the room and letting out a collective sigh.

“I definitely didn’t miss this hunk of shit or that psychotic lizard.” Vegeta said to himself as he rubbed his wounded jaw. “Hello Raditz.” He acknowledged his fellow Saiyans presence for the first time.

Raditz eyes opened wide in surprise, “Uh, hello Prince Vegeta, are we gonna get going or not?”

“Yes we are, pack your shit.” Vegeta said as he looked to both Nappa and Raditz, it was rather nice to see both of them in one place again. “I have a lot of shit I need to talk to both of you about and it’s heavy, so hurry it up and get to the pods.”

Vegeta dismissed both of them and strolled to the launching pads, he had his armor and his scouter that’s all he needed. He leaned against a post and shut his eyes as he awaited his comrades. Before he got too deep in his thoughts he heard the deep thumping footsteps of Raditz and opened his eyes, “Hey.” Vegeta said simply.

“You’re real talkative today.” Raditz said back suspiciously, “You planning something?”

“If I was, I wouldn’t tell you here.”

“Good to know you haven’t gotten too talkative then, you’ve been acting pretty strange. A lot calmer, I guess. Did you finally take advantage of the new whore house and bust that nut that you’ve been needing to bust?”

“I guess you can say that.” Vegeta said as his thoughts drifted to what he’d lost, and how he was going to get it back.

“As talkative as you are, you can never just say things that make sense. Like what do you mean ‘I guess you can say that’ like either you came or you didn’t.”

Vegeta laughed if only a little, surprising Raditz, “I definitely came.”

“Why did that still sound so so vague?”

Before Vegeta could respond Nappa interrupted their chat, noting the strangely positive atmosphere pre mission. “Our pods are ready, we can take off anytime we want.”

Vegeta stepped in front of him, “Let’s go then.” He said to the nods of his subjects.

All three of them got in their respective pods, enabled the stasis and blasted off. As Vegeta drifted into a sleep that was going to last him a year he thought of how far from home he truly was.

IMPORTANT AN: Hey, I wrote this fanfic lol. I hope you liked it lmao. Few things, one. Reviews are not only welcomed but will be actively encouraged. I’ll respond to every single review that I can by name so make sure to leave a review because I’m a review whore. It’ll be a while till I update this again. I wanna get a few chapters ahead, I just wanted reviews for encouragement lol. Have a blessed day y'all.


	2. Leaving Frieza

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They dip on Frieza lol

"Holy shit it's freezing on this rock." Raditz said as he left his pod, "But with that said I kind of like the feel of the planet. Feel as light as a feather here, the gravity's gotta be like nothing basically. Just enough to hold me on the ground and that's it."

Nappa grinned, "Hey you're right." He did some jumping jacks and back flips, "This is so fun, Vegeta have you noticed how light you feel on this planet?"

Vegeta sighed, "Yes, Nappa I have, I don't think it makes up for how cold it is, though. I wish that short lizard fuck would have told us how cold it would be when we'd be getting here. He must have been too lazy to have some scientists research the climate patterns. I'm surprised he hasn't fucked up and sent an important squadron to a planet with acid rain or some shit."

Nappa laughed, "I know, but you take the good with the bad Vegeta. It is cold though, almost makes me want to just blow up the planet and move on." Nappa fell backwards without bothering to catch himself and used his ki to melt the snow on the grass, "The ground underneath the cold is pretty soft though at least.” He paused. “Isn’t it all just kind of silly when you think about it though. Frieza wants to sell the planet after the purge is finished, but he's literally the most powerful man in the universe in terms of power and control. Like, he could change what we use for currency if he really wanted to. Yet he needs money?"

Raditz laughed, "What do you think that self centered bastard would call a currency he made up, the Kold Koin?"

"Frieza Funds."

"Kold Gold."

“The piece of shit rat bastard dollar.”

After a good laugh Raditz spoke again, "You know what I've been thinking, modern science is kind of incredible."

Seeing as Vegeta wasn't going to humor him Nappa pitched in, "Why's that?" Nappa said as he squinted at Raditz curiously.

"I've never really thought about it but remember when we went to that pub that had landing sites for the pods?"

"Yes." Came Nappa's response.

"Remember that like achy horrible feeling in your bones from not moving for a year because of stasis?"

Nappa nodded, curious about where Raditz was taking this.

"You don't feel that now, right?" He said as Nappa shook his head, Raditz grinned a little as he noticed he held even Vegeta's attention."It's because we crash landed! It jolted all of our joints and got rid of the stiffness, like you would think that just allowing your men ships that have to crash to land would be a horrible idea, but it's actually ingenious."

"Oooooooh, wow Raditz I think you're right. Great observation!"

Vegeta exhaustively rubbed his temple and chose to shift the subject rather than humor Raditz's disturbingly thought provoking take on space travel. "Yep, Raditz Nappa, I want no questions from you about what I'm doing till I'm done." He leaned against a tree and contacted mission control through his scouter much to Raditz and Nappa’s confusion. "This is Vegeta, do you copy?"

"This is mission control, copy."

"We've destroyed the planet as Frieza requested and we're heading back to base, eta is 1 gs-year copy."

"You were instructed to purge the planet, not destroy it Vegeta, copy."

"Damn, I must have misheard Frieza. You're going to have to inform Frieza of my failure. Copy." Vegeta smiled when an audible gulp was heard through the phone, "On second thought, I'd hate for you to possibly spontaneously combust on my behalf. I think maybe it would be best if I dealt with this myself in a year and you went on an early retirement. Copy."

"Y-yeah I think you're right, thanks for the idea, Vegeta."

"Don't thank me, just make sure that my tracks are covered. Because if they aren't, I'll slip away. I always do, and when I do I'll find you; and it won't be pretty for you. Copy."

"C-copy."

Vegeta smiled, "Over and out." He shifted his gaze to his men who stood there stunned, with their mouths agape. He strolled over to them, grabbed the scouters off their faces, threw them in the pods, enabled the stasis and sent the pods on their way. He almost cracked a smile in reaction to their faces watching the pods blast off into the atmosphere. "So if it wasn't obvious enough, we officially do not work for Frieza anymore." Vegeta said as he wiped his hands together, satisfied with his actions.

Nappa was the first to get his mouth under enough control to form words, "W-why?"

"Well for a couple of reasons but mostly, I don't want to anymore. We are not going to purge this planet. We're using it as a base for now because it has everything we need to get strong enough to defeat Frieza on it. Oh and we can't leave it, that's another reason we're using it as a base for the moment." Vegeta finished with a smirk.

"Yup, that's it. Nappa now we know why Vegeta's been acting strange. He's finally fucking lost it. He's stranded us on a desolate, gravity-less, pathetic, freezing, dirtball planet, full of weaklings in the middle of nowhere in the universe; and he just told us we have everything we need to get stronger than Frieza." Raditz laughed, "I almost respect it."

"I am your prince, and I have declared that we are more than ready. I would never sacrifice my birthright, I will destroy Frieza. We could never have hoped to become strong enough if we continued to serve him so we're finished.

"This is a terrible idea all around, we've made enemies of Frieza too early on, and we don't even get to blow up the planet. We get all of the consequences with none of the rewards."

"I am your prince, and I have declared that we are ready, end of story. You're with me, or you can leave."

"No we can't!" Raditz nearly yelled as he pulled the ends of his hair.

Vegeta almost giggled before he grinned, “Oh yeah, my bad.”

Nappa sighed clearly, not pleased, "Yes Vegeta, even if this leads to my death, I'm with you." Nappa said clearly not very confident in their chances, but loyal to the throne nonetheless.

"My loyalty lies with you, Vegeta but at the same time, _what the fuck?_ "

"If your loyalty lies with me, then trust me, that's all I can say." Vegeta said with a shrug, for a second he thought about telling them how he ended up here in this timeline, but then he thought better of it. They already thought he was crazy, best to not push it right now.

Suddenly an idea hit Vegeta: I'll look for the highest power level. It'll definitely be Kakarot. Raditz will recognize him then he can talk with him from there.

"Alright now, we're going to look for the highest power level. Then we'll go from there."

"You… uh, kind of sent our scouters off Vegeta." Nappa said, bleakly.

Vegeta rolled his eyes in response, "Right, right. I can sense energy, I learned it on the last purge we went on. Follow me, we'll see what this planet has to offer." He blasted off before he was bombarded by requests to teach them this ability, which he probably would end up doing eventually. As he flew towards what he realized was not just one relatively high power level, but two, he couldn't take his mind off how _strange_ the snowflakes felt against his skin. They had this sort of new, artificial feeling to them. It was hard to explain. He decided to ignore it, and instead focus on getting to Kakarot as fast as possible. Kakarot would lead the way to Bulma, and from there they'd have food, shelter and facilities.

As Vegeta's boots touched ground he couldn't help but notice that Kakarot seemed to be in a bit of a dilemma, he was being crushed to death by what seemed to be a giant Namekian.

"Wow Vegeta, that's the largest Namekian I've ever seen; I wonder who the poor fool in its hands is." Raditz said with a laugh, "Can't say he doesn't deserve it, though. What kind of man is put in that situation by a race of _slug people_."

"Raditz, I've taught you better than to be prejudiced!" Nappa scolded, "Weaklings or not, 'slug people' was a very problematic statement."

Between the sounds of tortured screaming from Goku, and the talk of species relations from Nappa and Raditz, Vegeta was just about at his wit's end.

"Sometimes I can't fucking stand any of you." Vegeta said before he teleported Goku out of Lord Slug's grasp. He made sure to wait for Raditz's surprise before he addressed him by name.

"I spotted the tail on him, do either of you know this Saiyan?"

Goku got to his feet slowly and caught his breath, then looked up at Vegeta. "Hey." He said as he coughed, and painfully adjusted his ribs, "T-Thanks for the help mister.” He coughed up some blood and breathed in. He took a second to gather himself then spoke fairly jovially considering the situation he was just in, “I was really in trouble there. I'm Goku by the way."

Vegeta grinned as his plan came to fruition," Hello..Goku." He smiled when Raditz sputtered.

"Y-you're Kakarot. You're my brother!”

"I'm your what?" Goku yelled, "I never had a brother or mother, or parents. I was born alone in the woods, super out there. So how could I have a brother?"

Raditz was about to scream, "The _woods_!? The woods, what the fuck is a woods. You dolt, you're from Planet Vegeta, how do you not remember?" He said as he uncurled his tail from his waist and wiggled it around, "Why is this planet not purged? Why are you calling yourself 'Goku'?"

"Why are you calling me Kakarot. My name has always been Goku after my grandpa; and purge the planet? I’m not super sure of what that is but just sensing your energy I know it can’t be anything good. This is my home and I wouldn’t do anything to put it in danger.”

Nappa facepalmed, "Because you're a Saiyan, did you suffer some sort of traumatic head trauma as a child because not only have you seemingly forgotten your past. You also for some reason think you can have a grandpa without a mother or father?”

Vegeta's annoyance with his fellow Saiyans mirrored Lord Slug's. "Why are you ignoring me Son Goku? I hate to interrupt the family reunion but I was busy killing you before I was interrupted. I would like to get back to it."

"I'm sorry Mr. Slug, but would you mind waiting a minute!" Goku innocently asked, "I really want to sort this out. What's a Saiyan again?"

Raditz yelled at Nappa, "See, I wasn't being racist, they've embraced their slug roots, and have named their lord after him! And as for you, Kakarot..."

"Everybody, _shut the **fuck** up **!**_ " Vegeta yelled, thoroughly fed up with the entire situation. "You, Kakarot. Me and you, need to talk personally, and immediately." He said, as he massaged his brow, "Does anybody have a problem with that?"

Raditz groaned, "Yes. Please, Vegeta, explain to my idiot brother everything he needs to know, and make sure you speak slowly, because he apparently can't even remember what a Saiyan is."

"I have a problem with it widows peak, now if you don’t ..." And that's as far as Lord Slug got before Vegeta blasted a hole in his body with no difficulty whatsoever.

Goku was in complete awe of this new guys display of raw power, "Wow! How did you take out big Slug guy so easily? You must be really strong! Can you--" Vegeta appeared in front of him.

"Shush, just shush. No more."

Goku massaged the back of his head awkwardly, "I'm sorry stranger, before we have our talk I need to finish up something. That King Slug guy has a machine in space that's terra-florming the planet, and I need to blow it up."

"Raditz, Nappa, find the machine. Dispose of it. Kakarot, come with me." Vegeta said simply, just happy to get things moving. He almost cracked a smile when he was finally alone with Goku.

"Wow I've really just gotta say it again, you're…"

"Kakarot, for the love of god just shut up, hold your tongue because I'm going to explain a threat to you that needs to be taken seriously. My name is Vegeta, those men that I sent off to dispose of that overgrown string beans machine are Nappa and Raditz. We and you are of an alien race called Saiyans."

“Haha that rhymed, also Saiyans?”

Vegeta breathed out slowly. “Yes Kakarot. Saiyans. Remember you had a tail and these other humans didn't? You’re different.”

Goku's eyes lit up, "Wow, so that guy is really my brother! I don't know how I feel about that, he's kind of mean. He called me a dolt, and I definitely don’t like the sound of that... But he is strong, so maybe..."

Vegeta nodded, "Focus Kakarot, you and him can discuss semantics some other time. Forget about it for now. As strong as we all are compared to you, and the weaklings of this planet, we are ants compared to Frieza."

"Frieza?"

"Yes, here's all you need to know about Frieza. He's very evil. He's coming, he's strong enough to destroy this planet millions of times over, and he'll do it without a second thought. Every pathetic human on this planet, including your friends, as a matter of fact mostly your friends, are in danger as long as Frieza is alive."

Goku swallowed, "W-wow, this Frieza guy is strong compared to you?"

Vegeta sighed, "As I am now, it's like comparing a...Pea to a seven layer cake."

Goku gasped, "Wow, I can’t believe someone can be that much stronger than you. Why does he want to come here?"

Vegeta decided to ignore the headache that dissecting that first sentence would give him, and decided to focus on one thing: “He's bent on universe domination, so he'll come here and do it. Every warrior up to the task has two years if we're lucky to get ready for his arrival; and just so you know, Frieza has been rumored to have a power level over one million."

"Holy- what, _1 million_?!" Goku sat down, in awe of such a ridiculous number, "Wow, that's pretty heavy Vegeta." He smiled as he stood, "Is that like a really big power level, is my power level close to that?”

Vegeta really had to resist the urge to slap the oaf in front of him, "No you dolt, you are nowhere near 1 million. Learn to put a number on the ki that you sense next time you’re meditating.”

Goku sighed, “Man. Well, how do we get ready then Vegeta?"

"Train your son, I'll have Bulma build you a machine to help out with your training."

Goku raised his eyebrow, "Wait, wait wait. How did you know about Gohan, Piccolo and Bulma? And _train_ Gohan? He's just a little kid, Chichi would never let me do that."

Vegeta dropped his guard in front of Goku, sighing. Things had really started to feel kind of normal for a second. "There's something else I haven't told you. But I don't think you need to know it to understand the grave threat that your planet faces."

"I'd like to know anyways, it seems kind of important."

Vegeta massaged his brow, annoyed with himself, "You can believe me or not, believe me, I don't care but here's how I know what I know about you. I'm from a future where we were...comrades, I was married to Bulma. We had a son named Trunks."

"You married Bulma!? But Bulma’s with Yamcha?”

“Firstly what the fuck is a Yamcha, and secondly people can break up you oaf.”

“Yamcha’s the guy who wears a gi like me, and he has big hair, kind of like Raditz but sort of not. You know what I mean.”

“I couldn’t possibly give any less of a fuck. Listen up. We started out as enemies, I wanted to destroy your planet like I had done to countless planets before. But you stopped me, then you let me go. I ended up helping you in your future battles purely out of my own self interest. Eventually I had helped to save Earth a few times, then a threat called Majin Buu appeared. He was a threat to the whole universe, and I died fighting him and went to hell. I was given back my body though, to help in the fight against Buu. Then, he blew up the Earth. A wish was made to wish back every good person that died by Buu's hands, and I was included in that. Afterwards, I told you to launch the spirit bomb while Buu used me as a shield and you did. Consequently, I woke up here in this dimension after being told I was being given a great chance to prove myself. Then, I was sent here and ordered to purge the planet, just pure coincidence I guess."

"Wow, what’s a spirit bomb.”

“One more Kakarot, one more Kakarotism and I'll feed you your hair.”

Goku laughed as he took all of the new information in. "Alright Vegeta, thank you for trusting me with all of that information. That’s a lot. That is, really a lot. What should we do from here?" He shifted his gaze from Vegeta towards Nappa and Raditz who had just gotten back.

"Oh, hey uh..." He walked over to Nappa and stuck out his hand, "My name is Goku, it's nice to meet you, Nappa."

Nappa looked over to Vegeta before he continued, "Hello Goku, it's nice... To meet you."

Raditz crossed his arms, "I'm not calling you 'Goku', you are a Saiyan, and your birth name is Kakarot."

Goku smiled, "You can call me whatever you want, it's all just words. It's nice to meet you too, like officially, Raditz."

"Listen." Vegeta started, "If I were you Kakarot, I would skip the pleasantries and gather up all of the people that you think have what it takes to defend this shit hole. Tell them of the grave threat to the planet, and then train."

Goku sighed, "Well, it would probably be easier to explain all of this with all of you around. I can show you where, well actually I guess you probably already know where Kame house is." Goku smiled at Vegeta knowingly.

Vegeta growled at Goku’s slip, "Don't be ridiculous Kakarot, how would I know the location of a place I've never _been_!"

Goku’s eyes popped and he laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head, "Oh yeah, my bad. I'll just take you guys there. Everyone's probably there right now, that's where we all usually meet after a fight.

Vegeta crossed his arms, "Then lead the way." He and the other Saiyans blasted off with Goku.

* * *

"I still can't get over how light I feel." Nappa said as his feet touched the cozy island sand, "Also this is quaint, I like it." He said approvingly towards Kame House.

Raditz scoffed, "Bit of a flight to get here, though. It is kind of nice, in it's own little way."

"That's what quaint _means_ , Raditz, I know you're third class, but I like to think I did a good job educating you. You should act like it." Nappa teased. “Never waste words.”

Raditz crossed his arms and sneered, "Whatever, old dog."

Roshi slammed the door open, "What did you just say?!"

Raditz sputtered; too surprised to register Roshi's small power level, "I wasn't talking to you, you coot! Kakarot, what is this?!?" Vegeta had a small chuckle at Raditz for his embarrassed outburst.

"It’s Master Roshi!" Goku answered, then grinned, "Hey is everyone else here? Because I kind of have some things that I need to talk to them about. Also these guys are from outer space and are going to help us cause this Frieza guy wants to blow up our planet, also I'm from outer space, oh and I'm hungry."

Roshi's mustache twitched, "That's... a lot to take in at once, Goku. But um, most of the gang is here. Apart from Tien and Chiaotzu, they're kind of hard to get a hold of, but they might show up just to make sure everything is okay. I'm sure they sensed your fight with that slug guy, and the snowing in July.”

Goku smiled and walked towards the door, "I hope they'll show." He looked over his shoulder and eyed the house, wordlessly inviting the other Saiyans into the house.

Vegeta took the first step towards the house and the other Saiyans followed closely behind him. He rolled his eyes as he stepped in the house and what was supposed to be the planet's strongest warriors already engaged in hysterics. Goku's mate was making sure Gohan didn't play with the turtle for fear of turtle diseases or something, Piccolo was meditating against a wall, Krillin and Yamcha and that strange floating cat thing were embracing and crying over Kakarot. The only thing missing was Bulma.

As if he could sense his thoughts Raditz spoke up. "Jesus these creatures are touchy."

Vegeta nodded quietly and stood stoic as Nappa's voice caught everyone's attention.

"Goku who are these guys?" Krillin asked awkwardly.

"I'll explain in a minute, is Bulma here?"

Yamcha perked up, "She's here, right now she's resting in a guest bed. One of those henchmen did some kind of mind read thing on her when she mentioned the dragon radar, and it knocked her out." He said as he tightened his fist in silent anger. The fury faded quickly though, "Does she need to be up for when you explain?"

Goku nodded, "Yeah Yamcha, go get her up, please." He said, as he sat on the couch with Roshi.

Vegeta’s ears perked up when he heard Goku call that one weakling Yamcha, so that was Yamcha. He recognized his face and ki signature, just drew a blank on the name, likely because the scar faced warrior hardly did anything worth remembering in Vegeta’s eyes.

Nappa was the first saiyan to speak up, "Is there anywhere for us to sit?" He asked politely.

"Sure, sure, just sit wherever you like?" Roshi responded to the very intimidating men in his house.

"Thank you." Nappa said as he sat in a nearby chair, the other Saiyans did the same with a nod of thanks.

Vegeta's brow raised slightly when Krillin ran outside of the house, but he quickly ignored him when he realized that he was just welcoming Tien and Chiaotzu. Unfortunately, it was a little harder to ignore Raditz.

"Wow." Raditz said as he glanced at Tien and Chiaotzu, "How… _quaint_." Raditz chuckled, as Nappa shot his word choice an approving nod.

Before Tien could insult Raditz back, Yamcha and Bulma came down the stairs. "Hey guys." Bulma said as she held her head, "Sorry for being late to the party, at the party."

Roshi looked over the couch at Bulma, “Oh Bulma it’s fine, but if you’re still upset about it I can think of some _thighs_ I mean things you could do to make it up to everyone.”

Mystically Bulma managed to cross the space between the stairs and the couch in an instant to bash Roshi over the head, “Idiot.”

Yamcha rubbed her back soothingly as he surveyed the damage on Roshi. Just a bump, "Nobody's upset with you babe, just take uh take it easy.”

“I’m upset with her!” Roshi yelled

The air in the room quickly turned icy when Vegeta noticed the hand on Bulma's back, the hand slowly caressing the curvatures in her back in a soothing motion as the hand guided her to the couch. Vegeta's gloved hand tightened subtly as Bulma sat on the couch, and held her hand out to Yamcha to remain closer to him.

Things remained quiet for a few long seconds as everyone wondered why things suddenly seemed strangely tense, Bulma awkwardly chuckled. "Was it this awkward before I showed up?"

Gohan; as if immune to the mood spoke up, "It's awkward?”

Everybody let out a collective sigh as Gohan went back to playing with the turtle, the ignorance of childhood had saved the mood, and everyone quickly moved on. Except Nappa, who was the only one who knew Vegeta well enough to realize that he was the reason things became tense; the only question left to ask in his mind was: Why? Hopefully Vegeta would bring it up later, but something was definitely off with him.

Goku cleared his throat, "I don't really know how to say all of this." Goku said as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, "So I'm not going to." He said with a sweat drop, as Vegeta ground his teeth. "Instead, I'm going to have Vegeta do it," Goku said as he pointed at the small, spiky haired Saiyan much to his chagrin, "Just listen to him and trust me okay, guys? Chichi, take Gohan outside while Vegeta talks to all of us."

All eyes shifted towards Vegeta as he crossed his arms and scowled, he raised his gaze from the floor to the poor excuse for warriors that stared at him expectantly. "Me and my... partners." Vegeta said slowly as he eyed Nappa and Raditz, "Were sent here by Frieza to kill every human then leave, so that Frieza could make his influence known in this part of the galaxy, Frieza is a galactic dictator essentially, and he's hundreds of thousands of times stronger than you, and anyone you've ever dealt with."

Goku gasped, “So that's what purging is!”

“That was your last one Kakarotism Kakarot, one more and I'll floor you.”

Goku awkwardly brushed the back of his head.

“There’s life on other planets?” Bulma yelled, surprised.

“How arrogant and stupid of you to think that your pathetic race of weaklings was _alone_ in the universe.” Vegeta snapped, “Don’t interrupt me!”

“Hey, you listen here--” Yamcha started, before Puar slapped a paw over his mouth.

Krillin shivered a little as he spoke, "No way anyone could possibly be hundreds of times stronger than all of us, much less thousands, that can’t be right.”

Goku nodded seriously, "I had my hands full with that big guy, and then Vegeta came and took him out in one shot. I mean, I probably tired him out, but still. I think we should listen to Vegeta.”

Tien shook his head skeptically, "Why should we listen to the guys that were supposedly going to murder everyone on this planet in cold blood?" Chiaotzu nodded his head when Tien finished.

"Because we still could." Raditz reminded everyone, "And none of you weaklings could stop us, there's no need for us to be planning _anything_. Any one of us could kill all of you, and then this planet would have nothing."

Nappa chose to reword what Raditz said before everyone needlessly took that as a threat, "What he's trying to say, is that if we wanted to kill you, we'd have done it already, but we don't, and that's why we're talking to you."

Roshi nodded, "I sense incredible power in these three, they weren't lying when they said they could kill us all if they wanted to. Not even Goku would be able to stand up to all three of them."

Raditz chuckled inwardly, "Or any one of us."

"Listen!" Vegeta yelled, trying to regain everyone's attention. "Frieza is coming, whether you choose to believe me or not, he's coming. He'll have a whole army with him, and as you all are now, nearly every foot soldier would eviscerate you. If you were smart, you'd heed my warnings. I've done you all a favor today, I abandoned my place in his army, and bought you all about 2 years worth of time to train. I've given you the chance to save your own lives, _and_ the lives of everyone else on this shithole to help rid the universe of it's dictator. He's murdered trillions, and he won't hesitate with any of you and in doing that I have asked not that you thank me for the opportunity to continue your worthless lives, just that you do what needs doing for this mudball to keep polluting the galaxy" Vegeta let his words hang in the air.

"Has he really killed that many people?" Bulma asked, as she sunk deeper into Yamcha's arms in fear.

"Trillions might be a low ball, if you take into account all the purges he's ordered, but isn't personally responsible for." Nappa answered.

A silence filled the room as the reality of the situation hit everybody, a collective weight had been placed on everybody in the room to suddenly get hundreds of thousands of times stronger in two years, or everybody would die.

Goku was the first to break the silence, "So, now that all that important stuff is out of the way." Goku said innocently. "I'm from outer space, and they all are too. We're the same race, or species. I think. Oh, and the one with the spiky hair is my brother." Goku noticed the confused looks from everyone, and clarified. "The really long, _really_ spiky hair, apparently he's my brother."

Raditz sighed, "Any new family I should be aware of...?" He asked, awkwardly.

Goku smiled, "Chichi! The one that I asked to go outside, she's my wife, and my son, Gohan!"

Vegeta ignored them and spoke up again, "Are we clear?"

Everyone gave a hesitant nod, if Goku was going to take this seriously, then as should they.

"Wow, hundreds of thousands of times stronger than I am in two years. How am I even going to manage to get to that kind of strength?" Tien asked himself.

“Maybe I can come up with something to help you guys, I’ll have to think about it. But while I do that do you guys need a place to stay?”

Before Raditz said anything too rude Nappa spoke up, "No we don't have a place to stay, we kind of arrived on the planet just today." Vegeta crossed his arms and looked away from the scene.

"Well you can come stay at my place, it's pretty spacious, so it'll really be no trouble."

" _Babe_!" Yamcha berated her gently as he gave her hand a squeeze, "You don't even _know_ these guys, they were literally going to _kill_ everybody on the planet a few hours ago, and now you're _inviting_ them to your _house_!"

"Yamcha, they're helping us now, it's like they said, if they were going to kill us, they would've done it already! Plus we should really make sure we're keeping an eye on them, and where better to do that then at my place?"

Raditz chuckled, "It's rude to talk about people like they aren't there."

“And!” Bulma said ignoring Raditz, “I would love to talk to some of them about the galaxy and interdimensional travel and…”

Raditz sighed, “Maybe these woods Kakarot was talking about would be preferable.”

“Babe I just think…”

"When can we get going?" Vegeta said curtly, cutting off Yamcha.

Bulma raised her brow, "Now, I guess."

Yamcha opened his mouth to speak, but Krillin put his hand on his back and gave him a look that said it all, you can't talk Bulma out of these things when she sets her mind to it. He sighed in surrender, and gave her hand another soft squeeze, "Just promise me you'll be safe."

"Of course, yam." She said as she gave him a soft peck.

It wasn't his Bulma, and yet seeing her put her lips on that weakling made his stomach sink to his knees in the worst way. Once again, Vegeta was reminded of how much he hated this fucking timeline.

AN: Review Respond Hour  
HavalTheRock: Don't worry I got plans for Gohan  
Dolguldur: Here's the update, was it soon enough?  
Super Kamehameha: Include movies? You mean like w-w-what I just did, and will do at least one more time. Don't worry my man.  
ZoeyCares: Lot of praise I don't feel like I deserve yet but I'll keep it all in mind. Thanks for the long review.  
Amanny: I mean probably  
RoyalBlueRoses: Thank youuuu

And for my Ao3 readers, I love y'all. I read and reply to every comment, and I appreciate every kudos. Especially the ones that make my phone go off at 3 am and wake me up, it's fantastic. I kid, but in all honesty my phone goes off every time I get a kudos from all of you individually and I get an email, so a wonderful way to remind me to get to working is to give kudos lol. 

A huge thank you to my beta reader, the lovely RoyalBlueRoses for her editing and input. Read all of her shit in between chapters from me. It’s way better than the stuff I put out.

Update schedule for now is once every three weeks. I love y’all.


	3. My Own Bed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vegeta gets his very own bed today.

As Vegeta leaned against his bed frame he finally took the time to sit and think about all that had happened. Since he had died he had been reunited with the last true members of his race. He had traveled across the galaxy, landed on Earth. Quit the Frieza force, explained the threat Frieza posed to the weaklings, and then he'd nailed down a home base. But not before an annoyingly long house tour, which was made even more annoying by the fact that he knew where everything was down to the exact cupboard Bulma left her snacks in, which she of course selfishly left out of the tour. All of that over the span of what felt like a day, and now finally, he had some time to reflect.

What he hadn't done was come to terms with the way things went down in his original timeline, and as he further rested against the frame of the guest bed, he was angered by the fact that even  _ after _ having time dedicated to thinking about it, he  _ still _ hadn't accepted how everything went down. 

The things around him just didn't feel real. He was in a world that was exactly the same as his, and yet not at all the same. But only in little ways, little ways that only a purebred Saiyan made for royalty would notice. Bulma's mother hummed her gardening tune while she was cooking, the different shade of blue in the curtains in the living room, the smell of Bulma's lab being more reminiscent of coffee than tobacco; which was a welcome change, and yet, it was a change. Just another small reminder that he was in an alien dimension, and he didn't know how to get back home. Or, if it was even  _ possible _ . 

It felt strange to finally call the life he used to have 'home,' but that's honestly what it was. Dying had a strange way of making you confront the things that you feared most, and for Vegeta it was that he might be becoming softened by the life he had lived. He was stronger than he had ever been, leagues above he had ever been. He had even surpassed Gohan at the height of the teen's power, and yet he still couldn't shake the thought that he had been softened by times of peace. Yet in the end he decided that the life that had made him mushy was worth dying for. He wasn't a good person then though, the universe hadn't deemed it so, as the namekian predicted. Yet, he was fine with that, and he figured he would always be. But then, the universe changed it's verdict, and for the life of him, Vegeta couldn't figure out  _ why _ .

He thought of the universe recognizing him as a good person. Not once, but twice. It was still inconceivable to him, unfathomable. Did the universe itself not remember his crimes, the millions he's slaughtered in an effort to continue his own pitiful existence; an effort that proved fruitless, an effort that in the end was an abysmal failure. After a humiliating attempt to gain enough power to defeat Frieza by abusing his Saiyan characteristics as if he was some cheap hack, he was beaten down, embarrassed, and ended in an instant after begging Kakarot to avenge a race that he hardly belonged to. Put down by his former master like a feral animal. The end of his first life, and the greatest failure of all his lives. He had failed his lifelong purpose to avenge his race, and found no solace in the cold embrace of death like he sometimes fantasized he would as a desperate, lonely, angry child; and the second?

He shifted his position on the bed as his thoughts shifted to the end of his second life. The nostalgic exhilarating shiver that shook his body, the familiar drumming in his ears. The last screams of existential terror before life was taken by his hand, like a dozen beautifully sang swan songs from an unwilling choir, the unfortunate section of the stadium that stood in front of his hand completely destroyed along with anybody that had been in it. His hand trembled slightly as he realized he was officially past the point of no return, and all for what? The chance to fight Kakarot to the end on equal footing. To make himself the bad guy once again in the hopes that Kakarot would treat him as a threat to the planet, and go all out. What Kakarot described as 'innocents' were nothing more than means to an end, just to satisfy his own agenda; and in the end, the outcome of the fight didn't matter. It was all a lie, then he took himself out. Sacrificed himself on a lie, he never stood a chance against the third class fool. All for nothing anyway, Buu survived the strongest attack he could’ve possibly hit him with regardless of it all. 

Apparently something he did after he was granted his body again changed somebody's mind though, and he couldn't fathom what he could've possibly done that could've made up for all the death and destruction he caused. Was it because he had helped save the universe? Did that make all the blood on his hands okay? Did that ease the pain of the five maybe six families that lived to experience the survivors guilt brought on by his carnage? Maybe it's because he had already atoned for those sins in hell, or maybe he really did make up for his misdoings. 

Perhaps this was the universe's last fuck you to the Saiyan, relieving him of his crimes, and bringing him back to life because 'he was a good guy now'; ultimately proving that he had indeed gone soft. Only to take his life away from him, rendering being alive pointless in the most pessimistic sense of the word, and then sending him to a different timeline. What a load of space horse shit.

As his thoughts died down, Vegeta couldn't help but notice Bulma's presence in the compound. He literally couldn't, his body had been fine tuned over decades to seek out and recognize her abysmally tiny energy signature. A skill that was useful in another life, but annoying as shit right now in this one. He knew it wasn't  _ his _ Bulma, and yet she looked like her, talked like her, bragged like her, smelt like her, had the same snacks in the snack drawer. She was her, and yet she wasn't. Her power level flickered up and down as though it was her chest rising up and down while she slept. The sudden spike in her distress like-- wait.

In an instant, Vegeta was out of bed and flying down the compound to see why Bulma was suddenly terrified for her life, and in another instant there was no longer a door behind him and he was in the room with her. He immediately saw the cause of her distress. 

The hooded man's speech was muffled through the mask he wore to conceal his identity, "Stay the fuck back." He said from behind the barrel of his gun, his sudden shouts quieted Bulma's muffled cries, his spare arm trapping a wide eyed, terrified Bulma by her neck. Silence filled the room, and he smiled behind his mask; realizing he still had the high ground.

"I don't want to see any sudden moves, or I swear to god I'll put a bullet right in the middle of your forehead. Your widows peak'll make a pretty good target."

Time seemed to slow down as Vegeta and Bulma's eyes connected, her silent pleas to rescue her seemed deafening in the quiet room they occupied together. Her lips quivered through the gag in her mouth, her glossy blue eyes held Vegeta in a trance as she silently screamed for help that only he could provide.

"Move out of the way, I don't want to make this a murder ransom but I will."

"Let her go." Came Vegeta's silent reply, his icy coolness unnerved the gunmen, who was pretty sure he was the one with the gun, and usually the guy with the gun was the one that made the commands.

"Are you stupid or something, move out of the way or-" The rest of his sentence suddenly got caught in his throat as he found himself pinned by the throat against a wall. It all happened so fast, way too fast. Too fast for a human. Vegeta raised his other hand in front of the man and held it for a second, then he moved it on his shoulder. His deep laugh filled the room when he noticed his wary eyes following his hand's movement, nothing was more satisfying than torturing people that truly deserve it. He wrenched his shoulder out of socket, and pressed his hand harshly over the gunmen's mouth as he screamed. “Shhh.” Vegeta smiled toothily, “You don’t want to get caught right.” Vegeta grabbed the gun from nearby and put in the man's hands and pressed it under his own jaw. "Pull it." He said as icily as he could.

The gunman's shaky fingers struggled to wrap around the trigger as he was forced to stare in Vegeta's foreboding onyx eyes. Every inclination in his body told him that shooting the demon in front of him would prove to be a fruitless affair. Suddenly thinking was a lot harder as Vegeta tightened his hold around his neck to enunciate his words. “You’re nothing. I can tell, just by looking at you if I squeezed just a little harder, nobody would remember you.” 

The Saiyan released his hold slightly as he let out a low chuckle, “That scares you doesn’t it. Dying alone? Well let me tell you, it’s terrifying.” Vegeta said, squeezing again to punctuate his sentence. Reveling in the look on this man's face, the man who dared tried to hurt his woman.

Vegeta quickly grew tired of watching him fail to wrap his shaky fingers around the trigger, humans were just so soft. As far as this one knows he's being gifted the chance to end his suffering and get away free, but he's too scared to take the chance. All because his airflow was cut off, what a soft species. Vegeta pressed firmly down on his collarbone, and found pleasure in the breakage he felt, as well as the screams that though muffled filled the room, he threw him to the ground. "Do you work for anyone?" He asked.

"No." Came his simple tortured response, "I'm alone, I-I'm alone. I just wanted to hold her ransom, I just needed the money. I didn't want to hurt her or anything, I just."

What a stroke of luck, he didn’t have to personally put down an entire crime organization. That made his life a lot easier. 

Vegeta held his hand out in front of him and prepared the energy that it would take to end his measly life. As he held the purple blast in front of the man's face and prepared to welcome him to oblivion, a loud muffled screaming could be heard. Vegeta groaned as he looked at Bulma, he knew she was going to guilt him into letting this pathetic being live, so for a second he contemplated pretending he didn't hear her. It'd be a pretty likely story considering the gag in her mouth, but no. He wouldn't feel right with himself if he did. He wouldn’t feel right with himself? Shit he was soft. Fuck. 

“Vegeta wait!” Bulma yelled as she ripped the gag out of her mouth, and just like that there were no more excuses. He rolled his eyes as he released the minuscule amount of energy he needed to gather to erase this man feeling a strange sense of acceptance as he did it. He socked him on the back of the head, knocking him out instantly.

Bulma's POV

It all happened so fast, one second she was laying in bed, the next she had a gag in her mouth, and cold metal against her head. His menacing voice whispered low in her ear that he wasn’t going to take any chances with her, if she so much as made a peep he’d break her neck and exit the corporation just as he’d entered, undetected. He placed his open palm on her chin creepily and guided her to her feet. “Get moving.” Came his simple command and yet it sent shivers down her spine, her stomach dropped to her feet and her heart pounded as she took her first step toward the unknown. Her legs quaked, and her lip quivered as she silently begged for help. Her second step wasn’t any easier, her breathing quickened but the gag in her mouth made catching her breath impossible. Before she could take her third step, the door burst into pieces and of all the people to come to her rescue, it was Vegeta.

She screamed for help, but the words got caught in her throat as her assailant threatened Vegeta and shifted his hold on her, “Stay the fuck back.” His words quieted Bulma, but she was pretty sure her heart's wild beating was still audible. In her terrified state it was easy to forget that Vegeta being shot was more likely to tickle than actually hurt him. Her eyes connected with his and she hoped that her gaze had relayed the message she was trying to send. 

“Let her go.” Came Vegeta’s icy cool response, Bulma nearly fainted from the relief in combination with the terror, he wasn’t going to watch this guy walk her out at gun-point for the fun of it. He was actually going to go out of his way to save her. She then decided that if he gets her out of this no matter what, Vegeta was officially not that bad. 

Vegeta wasn’t visible, but she knew he was in movement, one second she was held hostage by her almost kidnapper, the next she was on the floor, holding herself up as the sweat dripped from her forehead down to her hands, and her arms shook under her weight. The pit in her stomach slowly deteriorated. She managed the strength to sit up against the side of her bed, Bulma gradually got her breathing under control which seemed strangely hard to do, then the dryness in her throat went away. She finally lifted her chin and saw her assailant being pinned to the wall by Vegeta. 

The waves of anger and death being emanated by Vegeta scared the shit out of her, and  _ she _ wasn’t even the one they were directed at. A nearby window allowed the moonlight to illuminate the room just enough to see the absolutely terrified face of the man who almost kidnapped her, keeping Vegeta in horrifying darkness. She almost pitied him, his face twisted and contorted as he sweated, and silently hyperventilated while he failed to wrap his hand around the trigger. Any words they might have exchanged blurred together as Bulma tried to get herself together, the only thing that was evident to her was his choked expression. She jumped in surprise as his body hit the ground with a thud. Vegeta held his hand out in front of him and prepared to end his life, the purple light from Vegeta’s palm filled the room as he held his palm in front of her kidnapper's face. 

Her muffled cries surprised even her, as she held her hand out, she removed her gag and yelled, “Vegeta wait!” Much to her surprise he looked behind him with an annoyed look, as if he'd expected this. A second or two of thought passed by as Vegeta clearly considered her request, with a roll of his eyes he let go of the energy in his palm, and she jumped at the pounding noise that came from the man's skull after Vegeta knocked him out. 

“Call the earth authorities on this waste of space.” 

She was going to thank him, whether it was for not killing him, or for saving her she had no idea, but she was going to thank him; until the words got caught in her throat. She tried to sink further into the wood that made up her bed as she realized she was finally completely safe, she bit her finger-nail nervously for a second before finally letting out real words. “Thank you Vegeta, I really. I thought that…I thought, I-I just can’t believe that this...” Slowly the fear gave way to anger, "Oh gosh. Somebody is so fucking fired!” Her sudden outburst caused Vegeta a ghost of a smile, which was gone as soon as it came. A flutter of a grin that Bulma had a feeling she was lucky to see.

An awkward silence filled the room before Vegeta’s words finally registered to Bulma, “we need to call the cops! I can’t believe he got past security! How did he  _ even _ get in, we have security cameras, and guards and, oh my gosh!” Bulma said quickly, as she ran her hands anxiously through her hair.

“Go to the phone, call the authorities. Get your shit together, I’ll make sure he’s still here when they arrive.” 

Bulma nodded, “Alright, thanks again Vegeta. I-I don’t know what I would’ve done, or what would’ve happened if you weren’t here to help me.” 

Vegeta shrugged, and leaned against the wall next to him was the unfortunate man who lay in a very unflattering position, with his butt in the air.

After one last glance at Vegeta she stepped over the remains of the door and made sure to hold her head high as she walked through the hallway, feigning as much confidence as she could, whilst she walked to the landline in the living room. Although everything seemed like it was okay, the dark was home to the unknown, and Bulma by nature, and especially right now wanted to be sure of everything.

As she dialed, she wrapped the line around her finger and relaxed against the wall, she explained her situation to the operator. She hung up, and took a second to relax before she thought of her next move.

Bulma debated going back to the room with Vegeta, but decided against it. She didn’t want to be in the same room as that creep that put a gag in her mouth, and now that rational thought had returned to her, she had to wonder why Vegeta went out of his way to torture him. Flashes of Vegeta taking his time to scare the daylights of her assailant hit her, and she had no choice but to question why he took the time to scare him. Wasn’t he supposed to be a genocidal freak, and yet he’d saved her. She hadn’t even proved herself to be useful yet, not really at least. The more she thought about it, the more it didn’t make sense. Bulma ran her hands through her hair in frustration, and nearly screamed, she hated not knowing things. She knew  _ everything! _ Yet the more she thought about this, the less sense it made. Whatever, he probably just saw an excuse to be sadistic and took it.

But could that be it? Was there more to Vegeta than she had previously thought? He seemed quiet the whole time she showed them around. Both Nappa and Raditz occasionally had something to say, or ask but Vegeta just kept quiet, she just assumed that judging by that perpetual scowl on his face that he was a bonafide grump. Maybe she judged him too early, a grumpy, genocidal, scarily powerful Saiyan probably wouldn’t go out of his way to get out of his million dollar custom made guest bed unless there was more to him than just being grumpy and genocidal. 

The flashing lights from the police cars shone through the curtains in the living room, and Bulma confronted them outside and explained what happened.

Vegeta sighed as he crossed his arms and leaned further into the wall, he focused on sensing everything that was going on in the compound. Like Bulma’s softly flickering ki, and her parents even softer ki, an even smaller blip on his mental radar was the piece of shit right in front of him. Everyone was alive, he let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and relaxed a little. He groaned as he heard either Nappa or Raditz snoring, he didn’t need to sense their energy to know they were breathing, the loud disgusting oafs. Nor did he need to focus to hear that wretchedly high pitched noise that the earthlings stupidly decided they needed to attach to their emergency responders.

After one more glance below his nose at Bulma’s knocked out assailant, Vegeta left the room and started towards his own room. He smirked when he heard Bulma yelling at some poor security officer through the walls, she might even wake up Nappa and Raditz if she continued at that rate. It was justified though, how hard could his job possibly be. He had to stay awake and look ahead, that’s literally it. 

Vegeta closed the door behind him, and put his head on his pillow, then did his best to tune out the rest of the world. 

He didn’t know how much time had passed before Bulma had predictably intruded upon his living space, but she was here.

“Hey.” She said awkwardly, her voice filled the dark comfortably quiet room as Vegeta rolled over to face her, “I just wanted to thank you again, Vegeta, I don’t know what would’ve happened if-” 

Vegeta interrupted her, “You would’ve been held for ransom, likely unharmed if it could’ve been helped. Your parents would have coughed up the money too quickly, the incompetent earth criminal would ask for quadruple after shaking his head because he forgot he was dealing with trillionaires. Then you’d of been returned home. I didn’t save your life or anything.” He said harshly, he facepalmed inwardly at his words. They weren’t as comforting as he wanted them to sound, but he wasn’t wrong. She was never in any harm, was that a comforting thought? Fuck, this was hard.

“I guess so, but you know when you wake up and feel a hand over your mouth and some guy of questionable intentions whispers in your ear to shut the fuck up, it kind of makes you feel in danger.”

“Been there.” He said dryly.

Bulma nearly laughed at his response, was that an admission of something dark or did Vegeta have a sense of humor? It was so hard to get a read on him! Fuck this was hard “By the way uh, how did you hear me?” 

Vegeta scoffed, “I didn’t hear you, but judging by the way you flipped out on your pathetic excuse for security I could’ve if you tried hard enough.” 

Bulma huffed, “Don’t even get me started on that, oh my gosh, like he honestly has to have the easiest job in the world. 99% of the time he gets to just sit and twiddle his thumbs and be paid for it, but the time comes to actually do something he’s asleep at like 11 o-clock, ooh my ughh. I’m replacing him with a machine next bit of free time I get” Bulma said as she ran a hand through her hair frustrated. 

Vegeta grinned in the darkness, he had thought virtually the same thing. 

“But getting away from that, how did you know I was in trouble? Did you like, sense my energy?” 

Vegeta nodded, “Something like that.”

“But Goku and Yamcha and everyone else always say it’s hard to sense my energy because of how small it is? Yamcha always complains about how hard he has to focus to sense me. Which I’m perfectly fine with, I think it’s creepy that you guys can just read wherever I am or how I’m feeling.” 

Vegeta inwardly groaned, how could he explain to Bulma that he had been married to her for close to a decade, and had just acclimated himself to it. Familiarized himself with her ki signature, made sure he’d always be able to distinguish it in a crowd. Always be able to feel it, for her own safety. So shit like this doesn’t happen without someone paying for trying.

Vegeta sat quietly and thought about his response carefully before he responded, “I like to do a mental sweep of everyone in my immediate surroundings before I go to bed. Nappa and Raditz were asleep, your parents were asleep, and you seemed to be in distress and there was someone unfamiliar to me next to you. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on.” 

“Why do you do that?” Bulma asked curiously as she leaned against the door frame. 

“Make sure nobody’s feeling like murdering me in the night, make sure everyone is alive. You just happened to get lucky enough to be in danger right when I did my sweep.” 

Bulma sighed, “Damn, alright. Thanks again Vegeta. I really appreciate it.” 

Vegeta sighed as he realized that distancing himself from this Bulma while he trained to kill Frieza was going to be a pain in the ass, if he knew Bulma and he did. He was a bona-fide friend to her in her naïve view of the world, and that meant she was going to want to do shit with him, and the more he ignored her, the harder she tried. Because, “nobody blew off Bulma Briefs.” Such a disgustingly brazen woman. If he could have helped it he would have just stayed away from her but no, stupid humans had to go and fuck everything up like always. 

“Don’t mention it, now leave me alone. I’m going to sleep.” Vegeta said, he rolled over and his eye twitched as he heard the soft goodnight from Bulma. His stomach slightly dropped as she closed the door, in his old life he’d sometimes miss having his own bed. It was hard to justify those feelings tonight. 

  
  
  



End file.
